Should we help the poor people. The concept that the poor are poor because they deserve it or that they are somehow unworthy dates back to Victorian times.
However, according to this recent study on food poverty, these attitudes are still alive today, and are a very important part of how those who receive a benefit from social security are perceived.
Help Poor people is unworthy
The idea of the deserving and unworthy poor is linked to our understanding of the causes of poverty: whether it is the result of “agency” or “structure.” Agency refers to the actions of an individual, while structure is the external forces that may have led to an individual’s poverty.
If we are in the second case, then many people consider that the poor do not deserve help, as this tweet exemplifies:
For example, if people with financial problems spent money on conspicuous or considered services, such as a streaming service or a manicure service, it was understood that they did not deserve help to feed their children. Or if they did not buy cheap and abundant food, it was considered that somehow they did not manage their resources well and deserved their situation . However, perhaps poor people do not suffer so much that they need to vent one way or another or have not received enough support to manage their resources more intelligently?
It is something similar to when, in a debate on television, a polemicist pointed out that an activist policy : “You are too fat for the hunger that is passed” (when in reality it is precisely the poor who are most obese because they eat cheaper and more caloric food ).
Poor people are often born with various burdens, even at the neurochemical level, just as if they had been affected by a virus. They have less self-control, less tenacity, less intelligence, less ability to prosper, generally speaking; Furthermore, this is not so much a question of poverty in itself as of inequality. So, in the debate about whether someone is responsible for their situation or not, we should at least be aware of it.
